Today, though it is slow, windy and full of motor homes, cars and bicycles, It is a marvelous road. It was an engineering masterpiece to carve that road in to some of the cliffs and hillsides and to make overpasses and bridges across some of the great gorges. It cost a great deal of money. It cost a great deal inhuman labor and sacrifice.
The same might have been said about trail ridge road in Colorado. The highest continuous paved mountain road in the world, topping out at over 13,000 feet as it carries travelers through rocky mountain national park from Estes Park to grand lake.
Putting a highway in wilderness does not come easy.
John the baptizer appeared on the scene and he created quite a stir. He was a wild looking character with a controversial message of repentance and baptism. People thronged to see him in no small measure because he was a character.
But he came to announce the coming of someone greater. He was willing to accept second place. He said that his ministry was that which the prophet had promised would precede the messiah. A voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare a highway for the king. Every hill made low. Every valley lifted up. Every curve straightened. Every rough place smoothed.
Why? Because a great king was soon to come along that road. His job was to prepare it by preaching the message of change
First look at John. Why did god choose such a flamboyant and electrifying person? Why such a fanatic? Why someone who wasn't afraid of being politically incorrect or of offending people?
Few preachers since have carried the same kind of ministry as John. George Whitefield may have come the closest during the great awakening in England in the newly formed united states.
Preaching to open air audiences that often numbered in the thousands, his message was like that of Johns. Humanity is lost in sinful rebellion against god and only the grace of god in Jesus can save. Historian J. C. Ryle says of Whitefield, there may have been more learned and more stylish but none who were more eloquent or moving. No preacher has ever held such a rein on their hearers as he did for 34 years.
That was John. Controversial, but spellbinding. Tough but captivating. Johns dress, his style, his words his diet, it was all a metaphor for his message.
Look at John's message. What was his message?
His message was to prepare people to receive Christ. In ancient times, if news of a visit from a great king or dignitary was received, workers would hurry from the city to prepare a smooth road on which the king would travel as he entered the city.
John was the chief construction foreman creating the highway upon which the Christ would enter into the lives and hearts of believers.
If it meant knocking off a few rough edges, blasting out some rocky hardness, straightening out curves or filling in great depressions, he saw his role and message of doing that so that people would be prepared when the king arrived.
His message was to break down the rough high places in peoples live.
His message was one of life change. Eugene Peterson translates it clearly when he says that he preached a baptism of life change that leads to forgiveness.
What does this mean for us today. Every year at advent, we focus on the ministry of John the Baptist and his message that people should prepare themselves for Christ's coming. Is there some way it needs to speak to us today?
I think that this message comes alive for us today in a number of ways.
At this time of year when people are supposed to be so happy, there are more suicides than at any other time of year. People's lives are dry wildernesses.
In the midst of so much cluttered activity and partying, the message of repentance and life change needs to be heard. Prepare a way for the Lord. The king wants to come anew to your life and visit you. He is on the way. Are you ready?
for some of you there may be some very low spots. Some valleys of illness, depression or loneliness or self pity that Christ wants to be filled with the peace and comfort of god so that you too can experience the entrance of Christ into your life this season.
for others there may be some sharp hairpin curves, dangerous blind spots which would make it more difficult for you to see and experience the Christ of Christmas/ those curves may need to be straightened out. What are the priorities of your schedule? Have you made time for Christ to come straight into your life or are there too many parties, concerts, shopping trips, football games or trips planned to allow for Christ to interfere.
The Lord wants your life to become a highway under construction. The message of Jesus' forerunner still announces his coming. Still calls us to change. Still calls us to prepare ourselves for his entry into our lives.
The church needs to be absolutely clear on this.
The world may not be ready for this message. It wants the nostalgic and sentimental. It wants the rustic stable, the fluffy sheep adoring kings. It wants Santa and reindeer and fir trees and presents. But those are only trappings to the real message. The real message is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus came to change you from the inside out. Jesus came to turn you into a highway construction project so that your life will be ready to receive him when he comes attain